


Out of the Shadows

by nataliaket



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Character Study, Look at all that character growth, Thoughts on this boy after Season of the Hunt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29531112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nataliaket/pseuds/nataliaket
Summary: Crow isn't the man he was and he certainly can't go to the Tower dressed like that.
Relationships: Crow & Glint, Crow & Osiris
Comments: 3
Kudos: 29





	Out of the Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this is a one shot I had an idea for and needed to get down. It's my first fic in a few years so any feedback is appreciated!
> 
> I have many feelings about this little bird and his little light so I this gives you some too!

Crow has spent so much time trying to reconcile the fact that his face can incite such rage and anger in people even before they know him, he’s lost track of the hours. He understands that his body was someone else’s before Glint found him laid out in the Dreaming City. He knows he was someone important, someone who did something terrible, even if no one, not even Glint will tell him exactly what that man did.

The man he used to be. The man he was?

Except he is not that man, even though he inhabits the same flesh and bears the same face, he is not the same person.

Crow understands that not everyone will accept that though, the multiple deaths he’s endured have made that point very clear to him. So he keeps his hood up and avoids other Guardians like Spider tells him, more so after poor Glint is rigged as a floating bomb, lest some misstep destroy the one ally he has in the world.

He didn’t expect to find sympathy from Osiris of all people, Glint has gone on about the legendary exiled Warlock. The little ghost tells Crow about Mercury and the Vex and the wonders of the Infinite Forest, though he never ventured inside himself he admits. “From one exile to another” was what the older Guardian told him in the forest, on the cusp of Crow coming to the Tower and the Traveler. A reminder that as much as The Guardian seems to have put aside the actions of his past self, at least for the time being, it was a reminder that he is still exile, outsider.

Osiris is correct that he needs something else to wear though, the sigil of Spider emblazoned on his chest certainly won’t help make any inroads with City Guardians or the Vanguard. He follows Osiris onto his ship, Glint gently pushing at his back, his voice high with contained excitement, “go see, go see!”

“See what Glint, it’s a ship,” Crow jokes, moving up the ramp onto Osiris’ ship and making a grab for his excited ghost though Glint easily spins out of reach to hover next to him. 

It’s obvious that Osiris has been living out of his ship for a while now, his sole focus on his hunt for revenge on the High Celebrant obvious everywhere on the craft, Crow knows the look of a makeshift living space when he sees one. He’d spent long stretches of time in his small space off of Spider’s den and when he could in his hidden space in the damn with just himself and Glint's stories of planets and places he'd never seen to keep him company. The former Warlock greets them as they reach the interior, his helmet and cowl removed, the weathered face beneath on display. Crow can see the remnants of his sorrow hiding beneath his expression. The High Celebrant may be dead, his revenge exacted, but Sagira is still gone forever.

“You will find your new things in the corner.” Osiris points to a pile of fabric haphazardly folded on a crate as he makes his way further into the ship, a pair of boots on top weighing it all down.

Glint floats over excitedly, bobbing up and down, “I helped! You need to make a good first impression you know.” 

“I know, I know," Crow sighs and shoos his ghost away so he can examine the clothing. It’s clean and new and he can tell that it’s well-made, the brightness and quality of the scalework is apparent even in the low light. He’s never had anything new, that’s his and only his. He was resurrected in the clothes of a dead man and he’d scavenged any other equipment he’d needed. His current tattered cloak had been tossed at him by Spider, partially mockingly in retrospect, a symbol of who he belonged to that everyone would know when they saw him. He touches the armor hesitantly, as if in disbelief that it’s for him.

“Go on, see if it fits! I think I got the measurements right.”

“When did you...you know what nevermind.” Dismissing the mental image, Crow picks up the pile and finds a dark corner to change in, throwing his old clothes in a pile on the floor, though he has to fight the urge to light up the sigil cloak with Solar fire. 

It all fits though, so however, and whenever, Glint passed along his information to Osiris his ghost was exact. He bends down as he buckles on the greaves and pulls on the gloves, adjusting the ends of his sleeves over them. Glint floats over, dipping a little under the weight of a belt of ammunition and an empty holster. Crows chuckles at his friend and relieves him of his burden. He buckles it on and turns back to Glint for appraisal.

“Well, what do you think? It’s...nice Glint, thank you.” He can feel himself blush slightly as he says the words.

“The cloak, don’t forget the cloak, that’s the best part.” Glint zips around his head excitedly and floats above the folded piece he’d left to put on last, the outstretched wings of a bird waiting to encircle him.

Crow picks up the long piece of fabric and pulls it over his head, not quite ready to pull up the hood and hide once more in its shadows. “It’s so clean and so um, _white_. Don’t you think this is all a little bit much?” He says, touching the hem of the bird that now sits on his shoulders, but he stops when he sees the fins of Glint’s shell droop in response.

“Is it too much? I thought you’d like it, Osiris is the one who suggested the bird, but I thought it would all suit you. But if you don’t like it…” the Ghost’s voice trails off on a sad note, his eye focused down away from Crow’s gaze.

Crow exhales and scoops up Glint, gently bringing him up so eyes meet. “This is the nicest thing that anyone’s ever done for me. Besides, you know, the whole bringing me to life thing.” He tries to smile, one hand moving to spread on his chest. “I’m just not used to this I guess. People don’t do nice things for me and even though you’re my ghost this isn’t something you had to do. Even Osiris went out of his way. I’ve been hiding in the shadows all this time and I guess this all just a lot at once. The thought that I’ll stand out at all is scary if I’m being honest.”

Glint looks up at him and slowly spins his plates as he says, “the life you’ve had so far isn’t entirely what I expected, but we’ve had each other the whole way and we’ll always have each other, but with everything we’ve done I thought maybe it was time for you to step out of the shadows a little. And you won’t be alone now, it’s not just us on our own any more and we’re not bound to Spider, he told us to ‘fly away’, so shouldn’t we do that? Maybe step a little bit into the light this time?”

“You know, I think you may be right.”

“Of course I am, but you should see it all together. Hang on a second.” Glint zips away down the hallway, any slight seemingly forgotten, and a few moments later Crow hears a bang and a distant “oops”. The ghost returns after a few minutes trying to balance a piece of metal on top of his shell. “I couldn’t find a mirror but this should work.”

Glint angles himself in front and Crow and the Lightbearer sees his reflection in the shine of the metal piece. And there’s his face, not someone else’s, _his_. And he takes a few steps back trying to work with Glint as his ghost tries to move himself into a better position. Crow looks at himself fully and finally pulls up his hood, not quite as far as before and he thinks that for the first time he looks like a _Guardian_ , like a real Hunter not just some lost Lightbearer. And he smiles, a real smile and he can tell Glint has noticed as the piece of metal bobs up and down a bit and he ducks his head as he relieves the ghost of his metal hat.

“Well, should we go show Osiris?”

“Yes!”

Crow follows Glint’s illumination up to the door to the cockpit where Osiris is checking screens and fiddling with the controls, though he turns when he hears Crow’s footsteps approach and sees the younger Guardian fully.

“Ah, I see that Glint was correct in his details. It suits you.” He makes a small smile as he stands from the pilot seat, taking a moment to appraise his charge. “One small detail remains though,” he says as he turns back to the controls and picks up something that had been sitting by an armrest. He turns back and hands it to Crow.

Crow takes it in his hand and examines it under the lights of the controls. A black mask in the shape of a skull stares back at him. Forged black metal with fine filigree work around the edges and empty holes in the eye sockets, it is, like the rest of his new armor, well made, but at odds with everything else. He holds it up to his face as he turns back to Osiris. “A mask?”

“Unfortunately we must be doubly careful once we arrive and hiding your face under a hood will no longer suffice once there are so many more eyes looking.” The Warlock’s face is set and serious as he continues, “those in the City are not always so willing to look beyond past mistakes as they like to claim, and until such a time comes when they are willing to see the man that you are and not the man that you were you must remain hidden.” He takes the mask from Crow’s hand and firmly affixes it to the Awoken’s face, obscuring everything but the bright yellow eyes that look back out.

Crow blinks, taking a step back and using the action of removing the mask to hide whatever beginnings of tears were catching at the corners of his eyes and Osiris is at least kind enough not to mention it. “I understand.” He takes a step back and gives a nod to Osiris as he quickly leaves the cockpit, trying to not look like he's running away, eventually finding a corner to spend the flight in as he feels the ship take off finally, looking down at the silent metal face in his hands.

Glint finds him after a time, seeming to understand that his Guardian needed a moment alone. He returns meek and sounding hurt, alighting on the mask as if hiding it from Crow's view would make it disappear. "I promise I didn't know about that. I wouldn't have asked you to do it."

"I know you didn't. And it's alright for now, if this is what I have to do to get people to trust me, then that's how it'll have to be for now. I trust Osiris, he would know the City better than us."

Glint's plates spin in agreement. "And it's not forever, it's just until they get to know you and see you for you." He nudges the mask gently, "this is just temporary, soon you won't need it, I promise. I promise." Crow isn't sure if he's reassuring himself or his Guardian.

Crow nods and places a gentle hand on Glint's shell. He has lived his entire life darting from shadow to shadow, always haunted by the phantom of a past life and past mistakes that he will never remember. But Glint has always been there, one little light leading him through the dark. And now it's not just one light leading him forward, he has more, he has support and encouragement and maybe even a friend and a future. So if this mask is the last shadow he has to draw over himself then so be it. He just hopes that Glint is right and soon he can truly be embraced by the Light and its Guardians and walk among them as himself.


End file.
